The taxpayer - which was a member of group of companies that included a producer of exterior trim boards for construction ("W.L.") – earned management fees and rental fees from W.L. In 2003, the taxpayer lent $3.5 million to an arm's length supplier of specially prepared boards ("Interact") secured by patents held by Interact's principal ("Cable").
Following the bankruptcy of Interact and Cable earlier in 2005, the trustee in bankruptcy for Cable assigned the beneficial ownership of the patents to the taxpayer, so that it was deemed under s. 79.1 (6) to have acquired them at a cost of $3.5 million plus $0.4 million of relevant legal costs. The taxpayer claimed a terminal loss of $3.9 million when it sold its beneficial interest in the patents for $1 in 2007 to a related corporation.
In finding that the patents satisfied Reg. 1102(1)(c), Rip J noted that the taxpayer had made the $3.5 million loan in order to assist a financially strapped supplier (Interact) to supply it with the wood sizes it wanted, and that it acquired the beneficial ownership in 2005 with the objective (which was not realized) of exploiting the patents in a future joint venture so that the taxpayer could derive licensing revenues from them.